Cardinals 2014 Topic

Agreed. He is one of the worst defensive SS's in MLB, his limited range turns many outs into hits, just what you want for a young pitching staff (well no, not really). Offensively, as blips said his career OPS is around average, he tends to have very good years followed by bad ones, he was very good last season so guess what he will probably do this year? Plus how many players have come back from PED suspensions and been as good, unless they were cheating again? (Yeah I'm looking at you AROD and Lyin' Ryan).

So to sum it up the Cards have signed an offensively inconsistent, defensively well below average (at the most important position) 31 year old overweight player to a 4 year deal. Plus he is a big fat liar. The Cardinals have made a lot of good moves the last few years so it seems wrong to second guess them but this move looks terrible. Maybe they can move him to DH when Bud passes that for the NL.

"(they would be lucky to get replacement level performance from Kozma)"

Time will tell but I think they will be lucky to replacement level performance from Peralta as well. I'm guessing he will hit .250 with 10 HR's and a .650 OPS in 2014. By 2016 he will be worthless as a SS and at best be an average backup 1B/DH. You can cite all the defensive metrics you want, he will give up way more hits than an average SS. If he was a 1B or LF maybe you accept the poor defense and hope he repeats his near career year (at age 31-32) but at SS it's not worth it. I agree giving up a 1st for Drew would be too much but there are some trade possibilities out there, and they would not necessarily have to give up Miller or Taveras either.

The PEDS are just an added negative, if he gets caught again the deal will be a bust, and I don't buy the "other than that one mistake he is a great guy" argument. Mozeliak said “In his case, he admitted what he did, he took responsibility for it". No, not really. Here is what Peralta said last offseason when the first rumors came out - "I have never used performance-enhancing drugs. Period. Anybody who says otherwise is lying." I have never met the guy but he cheated, lied about it for as long as possible, then finally confessed when he had no other choice.

If he was in his teens or low twenties I would be a little more forgiving but he was 30 when he cheated. I guess he is slightly less of a douche than AROD. Put that on your gravestone Jhonny - "He was not quite the douchebag that AROD was".

I don't know - I feel similar to how Mike T feels about his Yankees. It's not my money. It's not like they're saving their money for something or somebody else. Shortstop was the only glaring need the team had and they filled it. Even if he isn't a BIG improvement over Kozma, he'll certainly be a marginal improvement at least. We didn't give up any of our young talent, the farm system is still well-stocked and we didn't lose our 1st Round pick in the upcoming draft.

Despite how anyone feels about PED use (I don't give a crap about it myself), I just can't see how this is anything but a win for Cardinal fans.

I'm pretty sure Beltran is history - and I think he's been history from the last game of the World Series. They've got a few other options in the Outfield, such as (1) bringing up Tavares to play right, (2) Moving Craig to right to make room for Adams, etc. etc. It may be a chore replacing all of the clutch hits that Beltran provided but since they've got their other options - plus getting ANOTHER First Round Draft Pick when Beltran signs elsewhere...the "Prospects on the Farm" machine just keeps on chugging away.

Again, it's just my opinion but I think replacing KOZMA at shortstop was a much bigger priority than holding on to BELTRAN, who (1) is another year older, and (2) is very injury prone. Who knows - we'll see...